How to Become a Writer

by

Lorrie Moore

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How to Become a Writer Quotes

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How to Become a Writer Quotes

First, try to be something, anything, else. A movie star/astronaut. A movie star/missionary. A movie star/kindergarten teacher. President of the World. Fail miserably. It is best if you fail at an early age—say, fourteen.

Related Characters: Francie
Page Number: 119
Explanation and Analysis:

Look down at your schedule. Wonder how the hell you ended up here. The computer, apparently, has made an error. You start to get up to leave and then don’t. The lines at the registrar this week are huge. Perhaps you should stick with this mistake. Perhaps your creative writing isn’t all that bad. Perhaps it is fate.

Related Characters: Francie
Page Number: 120
Explanation and Analysis:

Write another story about a man and a woman who, in the very first paragraph, have their lower torsos accidentally blitzed away by dynamite. In the second paragraph, with the insurance money, they buy a frozen yogurt stand together. There are six more paragraphs. You read the whole thing out loud in class. No one likes it. They say your sense of plot is outrageous and incompetent. After class someone asks you if you are crazy.

Related Characters: Francie
Related Symbols: Explosions
Page Number: 121
Explanation and Analysis:

You spend too much time slouched and demoralized. Your boyfriend suggests bicycling. Your roommate suggests a new boyfriend. You are said to be self-mutilating and losing weight, but you continue writing. The only happiness you have is writing something new, in the middle of the night, armpits damp, heart pounding, something no one has yet seen.

Related Characters: Francie, Francie’s Boyfriend, Francie’s Roommate
Page Number: 122
Explanation and Analysis:

About the second you write an elaborate story of an old married couple who stumble upon an unknown land mine in their kitchen and accidentally blow themselves up. You call it: “For Better or for Liverwurst.”

About the last you write nothing. There are no words for this. Your typewriter hums. You can find no words.

Related Characters: Francie, Francie’s Mother, Francie’s Brother, Francie’s Father
Related Symbols: Explosions
Page Number: 123-124
Explanation and Analysis:

Insist you are not very interested in any one subject at all, that you are interested in the music of language, that you are interested in—in—syllables, because they are the atoms of poetry, the cells of the mind, the breath of the soul. Begin to feel woozy. Stare into your plastic wine cup.

“Syllables?” you will hear someone ask, voice trailing off, as they glide slowly toward the reassuring white of the dip.

Related Characters: Francie
Page Number: 124
Explanation and Analysis:

Your mother will come visit you. She will look at the circles under your eyes and hand you a brown book with a brown briefcase on the cover. It is entitled: How to Become a Business Executive. She has also brought the Names for Baby encyclopedia you asked for; one of your characters, the aging clown-school teacher, needs a new name.

Related Characters: Francie, Francie’s Mother
Page Number: 124-125
Explanation and Analysis:

You have broken up with your boyfriend. You now go out with men who, instead of whispering “I love you,” shout: “Do it to me, baby.” This is good for your writing.

Related Characters: Francie
Page Number: 126
Explanation and Analysis:

Tell them you were going to be a child psychology major. “I bet,” they always sigh, “you’d be great with kids.” Scowl fiercely. Tell them you’re a walking blade.

Related Characters: Francie
Page Number: 126
Explanation and Analysis:

“Interesting,” smiles your date, and then he looks down at his arm hairs and starts to smooth them, all, always, in the same direction.

Related Characters: Francie
Page Number: 126
Explanation and Analysis:
No matches.